A Program to Improve Digital Access and Literacy Among Community Stakeholders: Cohort Study.
JMIR Form Res
; 5(11): e30605, 2021 Nov 10.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34757316
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
For many research teams, the role of community stakeholders is critical. However, community stakeholders, especially those in low-income settings, are at risk of being excluded from research and community engagement initiatives during and after the COVID-19 pandemic because of the rapid transition to digital operations.OBJECTIVE:
We aimed to describe the implementation and feasibility of a program called Addressing the Digital Divide to Improve Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, which was designed to address barriers to technology use, and to examine changes in participants' perceived comfort with digital technology before and after the program.METHODS:
To promote full engagement, we worked with 20 existing community leaders to cocreate a training course on using digital technology. We assessed the frequency of technology use and comfort with technology through an adapted 8-item version of the Functional Assessment of Comfort Employing Technology Scale and used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for survey analysis. We also conducted a focus group session with 10 participants and then performed reflective journaling and content analysis to determine emergent themes.RESULTS:
We found that the program was feasible to implement and worthwhile for participants (15/16, 94%). After the program, the participants perceived an increase in the frequency of technology use (z=2.76, P=.006). The participants reported that the program was successful because of the technology training program, but recommended that the program have a slower pace and include a helpline number that they could call with questions.CONCLUSIONS:
Future programs should consider that populations with low literacy view technology training as a core element to decreasing technology disparity. This study demonstrates that through low-cost input, community members can be provided the resources and training needed to virtually participate in research studies or community engagement initiatives.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
JMIR Form Res
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos